Afghanistan complete convincing win

Afghanistan started the second of their four day Intercontinental Cup encounter against Scotland with a 25 run lead and still with 6 wickets at their disposal.

Rahmat Shah started the day on 15, while Mohammad Shazhad had scored a quick-fire 30 the previous evening.

For the Scots to get back into the match after being bowled out for 125 the previous day, they needed to take quick wickets. The breakthrough came in the 61st over – an in-swinging delivery from Gordon Goudie beat the bat and struck Shazhad in front, dismissing him LBW after scoring 41.

Captain Nabi was the next man in, and contributed 19 to the score until Drummond had him caught at mid on by Safyaan Sharif in the 76th over.

Samiullah Shenwari came to the crease and stroked 4x4s on the way to scoring 23, until Davey induced an outside edge and Haq took the low catch. He then claimed his second and third wickets of the innings, bowling Mirwais Ashfaf for 1 and trapping Dawlat Zadran LBW for 3.

Izatullah Dawlatzai struck some hefty blows, before he became Davey’s fourth victim to end Afghanistan’s first innings and give the hosts a 150 run lead.

Special mention must be made of Rahmat Shah, who remained calm and batted patiently on his first class debut , successfully reaching his half century while wickets were falling at the other end, his score of 67 came from 196 balls and included 8x4s.

Scotland needed to bat with the same patience as Afghanistan, but, unfortunately for them, the top order batsmen struggled to pull Scotland back into the match.

Davey and Coetzer opened, but Davey fell in the 3rd over, edging to Mirwais Ashraf at third slip, and the same fielder was soon to take his second catch of the afternoon, when Machan offered a chance at square leg, with Zadran being the bowler on both occasions.

Richie Berrington soon followed along with Majid Haq and then Calum MacLeod to leave Scotland in trouble at 44/5 in the 15th over, still trailing Afghanistan’s first innings lead by 106 runs.

David Murphy then joined Kyle Coetzer, who was on 19*, and the two Northants men set about stabilising the innings.

Their partnership was worth 61 runs, with Coetzer taking boundaries off Shinwari and Nabi to move him into the 40’s. Murphy was to fall in the 35th over, giving Mirwais Ashraf his third catch of the innings.

Dawlatzai was hunting down the feat of claiming 10 wickets in the match, and took a step closer to achieving it when he had Taylor caught behind in the 36th over.

Coetzer, Scotland’s top performer with the bat on this tour, kept battling, ensuring he would reach his half century with a boundary, through extra cover. But the match would belong to Dawlatzai who beat Coetzer for pace to bowl him, and claim his 10th wicket of the match.

He would follow it up with his 11th, next ball, as Goudie edged to Nabi, leaving Scotland to contemplate an innings defeat.

Drummond and Sharif managed to survive until the end of Day 2, with Scotland 6 runs behind the Afghanistani 1st innings total at stumps.

It was an excellent achievement by Afghanistan bowler, Izatullah Dawlatzai, who has so far claimed 11 wickets in the match, with the hosts looking to wrap the match up early tomorrow morning.

*UPDATED 14/4/2013

Afghanistan completed a convincing victory over Scotland on Day 3 of the I-Cup fixture. It only took the home side five deliveries to capture the final wicket, bowling Gordon Drummond for 16, to ensure the final margin of defeat was an innings and 5 runs.